أَمِنَ الفَسَادِ طَغَيْتَ نَهْرَ السَّينِ

أَمْ لَسْتَ فِي دُنْيَا وَلا فِي دِينِ

Have you rebelled out of moral corruption, overflowing the river Sīn?

Or are you neither in this world nor in religion,

لَعِبٌ تَلاعَبُهُ الهَيُولَى جَائِحاً

بِالنَّارِ أَوْ بِالمَاءِ أَوْ بِالطِّينِ

A plaything the primordial chaos plays with wildly,

With fire, or water, or clay?

تِلْكَ المِيَاهُ تَجَمَّعَتْ وَتَدَفَّعَتْ

عَنْ دُجْنِ أَخْلافٍ وَدُكْنِ عُيُونِ

Those waters gathered and gushed

From the bosoms of successors and corners of springs—

طَمَّتْ فَعَمَّتْ بِالبَوَارِ وَلَمْ تَذَرْ

حَفْلَ الفَقِيرِ وَلا حِمَى المِسْكِينِ

They swelled and spread with rising flood and left not

A crowd of the poor or shelter of the indigent.

خَرْسَاءُ أَوْ هَدَّارَةٌ فِي سَيْرِهَا

جَرَّافَةٌ بِالعُنْفِ أَوْ بِاللِّينِ

Deaf or voluble in her course,

Rough with violence or soft with gentleness,

حَتَّى إذَا ضَاقَ العَقِيقُ وَضَمَّهَا

سَدَّانِ مِنْ صَخْرٍ أَصَمَّ مَتِينِ

Until, when the strait constricted and compressed her,

The dams of deaf rock, firmly anchored,

جَسَّتْ أَسَاسَهُمَا تُعَالِجُ نَقْضَه

فَعَصَى فَمَرَّتْ بِاصْطِحَابِ جُنُونِ

She probed their foundations, working to breach them.

But they resisted, so she passed on, rousing madness,

وَتَرَاكَبَتْ لِتَنَالَ مِنٌ أَعْلاهُمَا

فَتَدُكَهُ خُلْواً مِنَ التَّمْكِينِ

And surged, that she might reach the top of them

And pound it to powder, unfounded and unestablished.